A tabula lusoria found in the Republican castellum of Puig Castellar of Biosca in Lleida, Catalonia (180-120 BCE)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/aespa.094.021.04Keywords:
Roman leisure, game board, ludus latrunculorum, Roman Republican armyAbstract
We aim to show the exceptional finding of a tabula lusoria that appeared during the 2019 campaign in the Roman Republican castellum of Puig Castellar of Biosca in Lleida. The singularity of this finding lies in its location in a military fortress of the initial phase of the Roman conquest with a very precise chronology that ranges between 180 BCE and 120 BCE, and in the fact that it appeared in its original arrangement, in one of the spaces intended for the accommodation of the troops. These two elements allow us to affirm that we are facing one of the first well-dated examples of a game board in the Iberian Peninsula which provides us with clues about the activity of the soldiers in their leisure moments and tells us about the existence of Italic components among them, since board games would be an unknown pastime for the indigenous populations until that moment.
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Funding data
Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad
Grant numbers DGYCIT PID2019-104120GB-100-2020-2022
European Regional Development Fund
Grant numbers DGYCIT PID2019-104120GB-100-2020-2022
Generalitat de Catalunya
Grant numbers CLT009/18/00014